Saturday In Natchez

Forgot to tell you about the single barrel whiskey when we were at the Jack Daniels distillery. They offer  a special single barrel edition which essentially means that each bottle is not blended with any other barrels - each bottle is numbered and marked to identify which barrel it comes from so if you find one you like you can order another one from the same batch - it is very expensive but it is the best. Anyway a few years ago some one ordered a whole barrel and sent it to Team 6 Navy Seals - they were the boys that took out Bin Laden - rumor is that the order came direct from the White House!

We spent the day taking a gander round Natchez - there are a lot of antebellum homes here ( it means pre war - in this case it's the Civil War)

This particular one was started a few years before the war in 1861 but the inside was never finished apart from the ground floor - so inside it looks like this atrium 

The chap that owned it - Haller Nutt - died a couple of years later and the house was never completed but his widow and her 8 children lived there for the rest of their lives

We moved on to a cotton plantation

I didn't know much about cotton - in fact I've never seen a cotton plant before

We were shown round by the lady that owns this place - it's still a working, producing plantation.

The place had around 150 slaves working in the 1800's - they would pick the cotton off the plant and once they have picked a sack full - about 50lbs they start all over again - they worked from dawn to dusk. The seeds would then have to be removed from the cotton - very difficult - I couldn't do it - it would be done by the children - before a machine was invented to automate it.

The return on an acre for the plantation owner was about $40 - that was around 5 times more than any other crop - also cotton was fairly easy to grow and the crop rarely failed so that meant that everyone wanted to start a plantation so you had a lot of reasonably wealthiy people like bankers and lawyers buying up plantations and moving south - and they became even wealthier. But when the Civil War started it was game over for a lot of these plantations - the cotton crop were seized and the ports were blockaded so it couldn't be exported. Also a lot of their slaves took the opportunity to escape and join the Union.

Sunset over the Mississippi 

We're heading down to Lafayette tomorrow - more Cajun and swampy than this bit - should be interesting.

Friday going to natchez

We popped into an outdoor sports store and found the gun department - everyone has a right to bear arms -including the crazy people

Drove down to Clarksville to the crossroads made famous by the blues artist Robert Johnson - he supposedly sold his soul to the devil at this point to make him a better guitarist -unfortunately one of his girlfriends didn't agree and she poisoned him and he died aged 27. He only recorded about 30 songs but many many artist have ripped off his songs including Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Cream

It's about a 260 mile drive but the temp was 85f most of the way so we drove with the top down 

My lunch today consisted of pancakes and whipped cream - with a milkshake.....

We found a prettyish bit to drive which made a change from the monotonous freeways 

When we left our hotel in Memphis this Camaro was parked next to us 

The weird thing was that the same car was in our hotel car park in Nashville 150 miles before. The nice Swedish chap that was driving it assured us that he was not a stalker and promised he wouldn't follow us any more..... We'll see 

We got to Natchez fairly late so just had time to catch some dinner (v nice seafood and salad) and then onto a handy next door bar with some live music

And a nice view of the ol' Mississippi 

Thursday in Memphis

We've just about got to the end of the things to do list in Memphis - we kick off at the Pink Palace - it's a mansion that was owned by a gent named Clarence Saunders in 1915 he had about 1200 convenience stores - they were called Piggly Wiggly (no I don't know either) they were the first self service stores - he set the trend for the modern supermarket.

He planned to build a magnificent house in Memphis in 155 acres made of pink granite - unfortunately he went bankrupt in 1924 and never realised his dream - the city took over the estate and turned it into a museum of weird stuff (shrunken head anyone??) 

On to the Stax museum - this was an iconic record studio in the 60's. 

This is where Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Issac Hayes and a whole lot of other soul acts recorded 

They gave Issac this Cadillac after he recorded the Shaft theme ($26000 including the tv and gold trim)

The house band were Booker T and the MG's - this is the bass player Donald "Duck" Dunn's pipe - carved in his image! - are there any other bass playing pipe smokers out there?

We went on to another museum but to be honest we've about done with the civil war/ civil rights/ history of music stuff so I won't bother you win any more details of that.

Here's a picture of my lunch though - cheese, sausage and beer - and that was the healthy option !!

Wednesday in Memphis

We are out and about today doing the Memphis experience - first stop Graceland of course

It's quite a modest place - the house is relatively small and is situated on a main highway and is surrounded by pretty run down shops - the area is not nice - however everyone is here to grab themselves some Elvis action. So you have the jungle room

Tacky isn't it - the green shagpile is on the ceiling as well - nice touch!

We moved on to the civil rights museum

This is situated at the Lorraine Hotel - where Martin Lurther King was assassinated in 1968

A facinating place - there is so much that went on here with slavery and oppression over the last 400 years that lead to the fight for equal civil rights - there were protests here in Memphis in 1968 because the sanitation dept took advantage of the poorest people and gave them jobs with low pay and no benefits. It came to a head when two workers were crushed by a truck and the workers went on strike for more pay and safer working conditions. The strike and the resulting protests and heavy handed

Police reaction was one of the reasons that MLK was visiting. The I am a man slogan was used as a peaceful protest.

James Earl Ray was a petty criminal that was convicted of the shooting - he was arrested at Heathrow airport - there are many conspiracy theories of course - he died in prison in 1998.

That's enough history - here's a pic of Sam the Sham and the Pharoes stage outfit

This is the rock and soul museum - an equally facinating place 

A couple of other pics for no particular reason

Beale street is the main drag 

And tonight is motor cycle showing off night!! Lots of outrageous Harleys mostly with a few Triumphs plus a bunch of very old looking bikers. Not exactly Easy Rider 

More museums and stuff to do tomorrow.........

Tuesday in Memphis

We left Nashville today after a hearty breakfast of a peanut cereal bar and a lousy coffee  - no more waffles for me - I'm on a health kick!
A lovely blue sky so top down and on the freeway for a rather dull 200 mile drive to Memphis. Temperature is now 87 by mid day - a bit of a scorcher - we stop about half way in Jackson - famous for Casey Jones - he died rather heroically in 1900 saving the passengers when his train crashed into a stalled freight train.
An American hero immortalized in a folk song - there was the TV series made about him and shown on the BBC in the 60s -100 points if you can remember the actor who starred in it
We're staying here for 3 days so I will get busy tomorrow on the Elvis/ civil rights /soul music history of the place.
Grab ourselves a bowl of Gumbo and rice and fried green tomatoes - yummy. The gumbo is a speciality of the south of course - it's made from a base of celery, peppers and onions thrown in with chicken, sausage, crab, shrimp and alligator (allegedly) plus a bunch of spices to spark it up.

Monday in Nashville

Went into the city today to get a flavour of Nashville - best way to orientate yourself round the place is to take the bus tour. An hour and a half on the trolley and you've seen the tall buildings 

Been round the car museum

Stopped at Nashville's version of the Parthenon (yes really - it was built for the Centenary of US Independence - they also built the Pyramids but they've gone )

And been round the Country Music Hall of Fame (pic is of elvis's favourite limo)

A bit of late lunch on a rooftop

And finally on to the Nashville Megadrome to catch the Foo Fighters gig

I'm not a big fan but have to say they rocked the place - 20,000 people can't be wrong! The front man did the whole gig from a motorised throne as he broke his leg a few weeks before they were due to headline Glastonbury.

I've managed to avoid most of the country music round here thank heavens - we are making our way to Memphis tomorrow for a mess of rhythm & blues - should be good.

Sunday in Nashville

We took a meandering route towards Nashville today - saw a sign for the Jack Daniels distillery which seemed to tempt me in ( more than Coral I suspect) anyway - interesting free tour and here is Jasper Newton Daniel himself.

The sculpture is called Jack on the rocks - very amusing.

I thought it would be churlish not to buy some product while I am there so I bought some White Rabbit Tennessee sipping whiskey - only available in this place 

Lynchburg ( where the distillery is) is in Moore county - and that county is dry - that's right - you can't buy any of Jacks product in the local shops - what a marketing faux pas!!

Look forward to sharing with you - first come basis of course - I only bought 1 bottle!

We were pleased to see the temperature get up to 75f so top had to come down

We made our way into Nashville with intention of going to a nice restaurant but ended up with a bucket of crayfish tails and a load of beer in a blues club. I'm not a big fan of the country and western stuff so we found this blues and boogie place tucked away down an alley - absolutely smokin' hot band that played for 3 hours - the Scat Springs Band